An integral

Stephen Addison January 30, 2005

Introduction

We met the following integral in nding the electric force between a line charge of length 2a, centered on the y-axis and carrying charge Q and a point charge a distance r away one the xaxis: a qQ x dy Fx = . (1) 2 a 4 0 2 a ( x + y2 )3/2 In this equation, x is a constant so the integral to be evaluated is:
a

I=

a ( x2

dy , + y2 )3/2

(2)

Let is instead consider the more general integral (in the standard variable x)
a

I1 =

dx . ( A + Bx2 )3/2

(3)

Ive mentioned that its not easy to perform this one by elementary methods - I should show you the way that I actually did it the rst time. I was at home and didnt have any references, so I attempted to guess a plausible answer and show that it was correct. This is in fact often the most efcient way of evaluating integrals as differentiation is easier than integration. Thus if we examine I1 , experience tells us that the answer is likely to contain x and ( A + Bx2 )1/2 , x so lets see what happens if we differentiate J = ( A+ Bx 2 )1/2 . dJ d x = dx dx ( A + Bx2 )1/2 then, using the product rule (the quotient rule is usually less useful) and the chain rule
1 ( x )( 2 )(2 Bx ) dJ 1 = + 2 1/2 dx ( A + Bx ) ( A + Bx2 )3/2

(4)

(5)

and

Bx2 1 dJ = . dx ( A + Bx2 )1/2 ( A + Bx2 )3/2

(6)

Then collecting the terms over a common denominator dJ ( A + Bx2 ) Bx2 . = dx ( A + Bx2 )3/2 Thus we may write: x d A = 2 1/2 dx ( A + Bx ) ( A + Bx2 )3/2 or x 1 d 1 = 2 1/2 A dx ( A + Bx ) ( A + Bx2 )3/2 x 1 dx d = 2 1/2 A ( A + Bx ) ( A + Bx2 )3/2 d x dx . = 2 1/2 A( A + Bx ) ( A + Bx2 )3/2 (8) (7)

(9)

so

(10)

or since A is constant

(11)

Then nally integrating, we have our result dx = ( A + Bx2 )3/2 d x x = . 2 1/2 A( A + Bx ) A( A + Bx2 )1/2 (12)

At this point we would just insert our limits and be done. Of course if it was an indenite integral, we would add a constant. This method of evaluating integrals is widely used in practice. With a little experience you can guess the form of the variables in the result. You then differentiate to see if you can recover the starting point. Sometimes youll just need to rearrange constants. Other times, your guess will be wrong, but the calculation will aid you in making a better guess. (It took about a minute to do this calculation- far less time that it takes to nd tables or the instruction manual for my calculator.)